The Pedestrian was hyped up to be quite the puzzle game and it is easy to see why. This side-scroller has you hopping between various street signs in the heart of the city. Each sign is like a little maze and finding the path to each exit proves to be a fair challenge. Many of the puzzles have multiple layers and therefore appear quite daunting at first glance. However if you just stop to take a breath and simply focus on one task at a time you can overcome each stage. This game is a real treat and any headaches it may give you in the short term pays off in the long run as this is a very rewarding experience.
You play as the kind of stick man you'd expect to see on a crosswalk sign. It isn't really clear why you're traveling across so many signs but the playful music cheers you forward. Your ability to jump is fairly limited but ladders and elevators are there to help you ascend. Equally important is your ability to connect doors from one sign to another allowing you a chance to reach new locations. You need to find keys to unlock certain doors or pull a lever to make a platform move for you. As you progress new gimmicks are taught and will continue to add up till you learn to juggle them all at the same time in later stages.
The Pedestrian is a game best enjoyed when you're fully awake and alert. At the end of each area is a branching puzzle and each branch may having you juggling upwards of five signs at a given time. These puzzles definitely appear a bit daunting a first glance as there is a lot going on. At this point you really need to break things down into smaller chunks such as which doors can I connect or what area to I need to proceed to first. Somethings trial an error may help to get you going in the right direction as you'll start to see that there are only so many possible routes.
As a fan of the puzzle genre I can easily say that The Pedestrian delivered exactly the kind of experience I had hoped for. While some of the mechanics have been seen in other games overall this felt pretty fresh. I was pleasantly surprised, or honestly maybe not too surprised, that there was a twist towards the end keeping in the tradition of great puzzles games like Portal or The Witness. This game wasn't too long but I felt I got a good couple hours out of it and there are a couple hidden passages of which I only spotted one. It seems redundant to say but puzzles games fans are in for a treat and maybe the fun visuals will draw some new players into the genre if they give this a shot.